News Release

Theatre Hopkins' 84th season continues with "The Mistress of Riversdale," at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 4, at Centennial Hall on the campus of the Gilman School, 5407 Roland Ave. in Baltimore.

Cherie Weinert performs this one-woman dramatization of the life of Rosalie Stier Calvert, a wealthy Belgian émigré and wife of George Calvert, at their plantation near Washington, D.C., during the first two decades of the 19th century. Suzanne Pratt, director of Theatre Hopkins, wrote the script, which she adapted from Rosalie Calvert's original letters. They were published by Margaret Law Callcott in the book Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821.

The text is drawn directly from extraordinary letters Rosalie Calvert, the mother of nine children, sent to her family in Antwerp over her 20 years at Riversdale. Rosalie's correspondence includes her ardent views on presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe as well as Napoleon, Col. Aaron Burr and Baltimore's Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.

Also detailed is her courtship and marriage to the grandson of the fifth Lord Calvert, and their creation of Riversdale. That estate not only lent its name to the Washington suburb, known as Riverdale, but also provided the original campus of the Maryland Agricultural College, which later became the University of Maryland College Park.

Flutist Kateri Chambers, a senior at The Johns Hopkins University, will introduce the play with a recital of music of the period. Tickets are $10 and may be reserved by calling Theatre Hopkins at (410) 516-7159; or by e-mail to thehop@jhu.edu.